The Joint Committee on Standing Orders relative to Private Business report that Deputy Little has intimated his desire to resign as a member of the Joint Committee.
Private Business. - Report of Joint Committee on Standing Orders (Private Business).
I wish to offer my resignation to the House from this Committee. I do not do so for personal reasons, but as representing the view of the official Opposition Party. My resignation is tendered as a protest on behalf of that Party, and it expresses its complete disassociation from the practice of the Joint Committee on Standing Orders, particularly as it affects Bills of the character of the Bank of Ireland Bill. We hold that when any Party of considerable importance in the Oireachtas is of opinion that the public interest is affected by a Private Bill, that Party should be afforded an opportunity of informing itself fully of all the details of the Bill by having its chosen representatives on the examining committee to follow the Bill through all its stages.
I wish to say that the main function of the Joint Committee on Standing Orders is to hear appeals from the decision of the Examiner as to compliance with the Standing Orders. That Committee has never tried to appoint committees on a Party basis. That has never been the function of the Committee. The Committee has always tried to select members of the two Houses who they thought would be suitable for a particular Bill. The Committee itself was not selected on a Party basis, and is not representative of the different Parties in this House. I want to make that clear. With reference to the action taken with regard to the Bank of Ireland Bill, the Joint Committee has not departed from the procedure which it has followed from the first time the Committee was formed, but has followed that procedure right through. In this case, Deputy Little intimated to the Committee—he himself being a member of the Committee—that it was the desire of his Party that certain members of his Party should be appointed on that Committee. The Joint Committee on Standing Orders did not agree, and, as a result, Deputy Little withdrew from the meeting, and, at a later stage, intimated to the Committee his desire to resign. That is the report which I have just read for the House.
Ordered that the Report be referred to the Committee of Selection.
rose.
I have heard Deputy Little and the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, and I do not think we ought to debate this matter further.
May I ask on what occasion we could have an opportunity of discussing this question, which is really a very important and fundamental one?
There is another report coming before us to-day on which I should prefer to answer Deputy Little. For the moment, I think that this report, which states that Deputy Little wishes to resign from the Committee, should be referred to the Committee of Selection, because it is by that Committee that the members of the Joint Committee on Standing Orders for Private Business are nominated. I shall make that order now.